How Did Bethlehem's Schools Do on Their State Report Card? [Corrected]

Editor’s Note: This is a corrected story on the most recent Pennsylvania Department of Education evaluations of Bethlehem Area School District schools. We initially published information based on the previous year’s evaluations.

Six schools in the Bethlehem Area School District got failing grades in the School Performance Profile, a new standard unveiled this year by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Fifteen of the district’s schools received a score of 70 or above, which under the new evaluation system is considered to be the standard of success.

The study measures things like performance on the Keystone/PSSA exams and graduation and attendance rates, according to the state Website.

However, Bethlehem Area Schools Superintendent Joseph Roy, said in a statement posted on the district’s Website that the new School Performance Profile is deeply flawed.

In the statement, he pointed out that the new standard is a lot like the old No Child Left Behind standards, relying “overwhelmingly” on standardized test scores and produces a single score for each school that is “meaningless and misleading.”

“Schools around the world, business leaders in America, and communities across the country are rejecting repetitive state standardized testing and its narrowed curriculum common during the NCLB Era,” Roy said.

“Instead, the emphasis is on the whole child, creativity, and a variety of knowledge and skills,” the superintendent said. “The state's new reporting is out of step with this focus on educating the whole child.”

One school, Liberty High School, has not yet received a score because of “corrections the school will make in its end-of-course designations for students taking the Keystone Exams,” according to the state Website. The score should be available by January.

Freedom High School scored a passing 73.4.

The schools that did not receive passing grades are:

• Broughal Middle School, 61.8
• Donegan Elementary School, 64.9
• Fountain Hill Elementary School, 55.2
• Freemansburg Elementary School, 69.1
• Marvine Elementary School, 67.4
• Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, 68

The Department of Education’s School Performance Profile Website has the evaluations of all of the Bethlehem Area School District Schools here.